Meeting Minutes - 2/19/22

NCWCA Board Meeting 2/19/22

All 12 Board members present

·         Regional Imbalance – Coach Uy addressed the imbalance in regionals in the new realignment cycle.  2A was used an example, with 2A Mideast having only 15 schools having a wrestling team in 2021-22.  The Board’s proposal to balance regionals in Fall 2021 was denied by the NCHSAA Board.  Tra indicated a spring ’22 proposal using longitude instead of conferences would be considered and April was the deadline for submitting a spring proposal to the NCHSAA Board for consideration.  The proposal would be for individual regionals only with dual team being unchanged.  The Board agreed to submit a proposal to the NCHSAA Board this spring to address regional imbalances.

·         Girls Wrestling - The number of entries to the girl’s state tournament exposed the need for a qualifying event for the girl’s state tournament.  The Board will submit a proposal for a regional qualifying tournament for girls in 2022-23.  A suitable date will need to be secured that is a good fit in the busy post season.  Other questions about girls wrestling will also need to be addressed: 1. How will a girl’s regional be seeded?  2. Will matches against boys and girls count equally / differently?  3. How long will girls be allowed to participate on both boys and girl’s teams?  Soccer was cited as an example when girls’ soccer was first introduced in NC.  The girls advisory committee will work towards a goal of submitting a regional seeding proposal by summer ’22.

·         New Weight Classes 2023-2024 The NFHS will have each state choose the number of weight classes they will use in 2023-24.  Coach Baker indicated that he’d discussed this with many coaches across the 4 classifications and believes there is strong support to keep 14 weight classes in North Carolina.  The Board will survey all coaches and look at data and feedback before weighing on the weight class options.

·         Rank Wrestlers for Regionals Coach Carey suggested that the Board and the NCHSAA explore using Rank Wrestlers to seed regional tournaments.  The Board agreed that Rank Wrestlers seeding the dual playoffs was successful and coaches familiar with the Rank Wrestlers algorithm vouch for its accuracy.   

·         Dual Team Finals Location for 2023 Tra informed the Board that the Greensboro Coliseum may not be available for the Dual Team Finals / Women’s State Finals.  A possible location would be the Cabarrus County arena.  The Board felt if there was a venue change for 2023 that there shouldn’t make any changes to the format (e.g., running 4 mats at once instead of 2 mats) until we can assess how well the facility works with the Dual / Women’s finals.